Now this is the kind of sweet treat that’s actually healthy – healthy enough to want to dress it up as naughty, so that’s what I’ve done with this recipe 😉

If you like chocolate, caramel and peanuts, this sweet, creamy, slightly salty bowl of decadence will have you chuckling to yourself over the nutritional kick you’re getting with every lick…!

Flavour: Sweet, creamy, slightly salty

Serves: 2 as a sizeable naughty-but-nice treat

Ingredients:

Ice cream:

• 2-3 (depending on size) frozen bananas (I always keep a few bananas in the freezer, ready for when I feel like a decadent snack – best to chop them into a few pieces, as this makes them easier to whip into ice cream later)
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (I used to use raw cacao, but more recently I’ve gravitated toward the richer tasting cocoa, which is just roasted cacao powder)
• 1 tablespoon sugar (I use rapadura or palm sugar, for the flavour as well as the lower level of processing)
• Half teaspoon vanilla essence

Cheat’s caramel topping:

• 2 tablespoons butter substitute (I use Nuttelex – you can use whatever brand you prefer)
• 2 tablespoons sugar (rapadura or palm sugar best for this, as they have a natural rich caramel flavour)

Crunchy peanut topping (always good to have some of this prepped in advance):

• Handful of peanuts
• A couple of drops of sesame oil (you can use an unflavoured oil such as sunflower if you prefer)
• A pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Start with the caramel: melt butter in saucepan on low heat, and stir in sugar
2. Once butter and sugar are incorporated (you’ll need to stir well to stop it separating), pop it in a small bowl and whack it in the freezer to cool and thicken while you prepare the rest…
3. Pop the peanuts, oil and salt in a frying pan over a high heat, and shake the pan every so often so the nuts toast evenly – you should have nicely toasted nuts after 5 minutes or less
4. Pop the nuts in a food processor and grind until you have crunchy little salty fragments of the size you’d like to sprinkle over ice cream
5. Pop your frozen banana chunks in the food processor (really, use this and not your Vitamix-type thingo as you want a whipped ice cream, not a gloopy smoothie!) with the cocoa, sugar and vanilla, and blend until it’s a whipped dreamy, creamy consistency – then you’re done 😉
6. Slop the ice cream into as many or as few bowls as you feel suits, pull your caramel out of the freezer, give it a quick stir and drizzle it over your ice cream, and then garnish with a generous sprinkle of toasted peanutty goodness (the more, the better, as far as I’m concerned)
7. Eat mindfully, savouring every last mouthfeel of sweet, chocolatey, creamy, syrupy, salty, crunchy yumminess 😀